Being drafted into the army is not an event most young men greet with glee, and 16-year-old South African Nicholas van den Swart (Kai Luke Brummer) is no exception.
It’s 1981 and South Africa is embroiled in a nasty border war with neighboring communist-backed Angola. Nick, gay and accustomed to being careful about revealing his desires, finds that he not only has to deal with the intentional brutality of basic training, the viciousness of racism endemic to the South African Apartheid regime and the inevitable horrors of war, but also with the indignity of institutionalized homophobia in filmmaker Oliver Hermanus’ new film “Moffie.”
“Moffie”(an Afrikaans slang term translated “faggot” on the screen) is unlike any war film I’ve seen, because of the way Hermanus balances the expected horrors of basic training and the attempt to break the will of the young recruits with Nick’s very human and touching attempts to give rein to his own sexual being. At one point the recruits are given an exercise in digging trenches and told “I think it’s going to rain. If you climb out of these trenches, I’ll shoot you. Stay where you are.”
Moffie is “forced” to stay in that trench, where it’s cold, wet and…..yes, he snuggles with his trench mate. It’s a charming and unexpected scene, and without this and other occasional evidences of humanity, “Moffie” would be just another “horrors of war” film.
Braam du Toit’s score underlines the plot, varying from ominous atonal sounds to occasional snatches of Vivaldi and Bach to set the emotional scenes.
The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Brummer as the tortured Nick. These recruits have had few pleasures, and it almost seems as if climbing the hill into actual combat will be a relief from the seemingly senseless tortures of basic training.
“Moffie” is a difficult film to watch, but it’s quite an accomplishment as film.
“Moffie” opens April 9 in theaters and on demand.
